The present invention relates to a textile fabric designed to control the position of adjacent internal organs about an operation site during a surgical operation.
It is absolutely necessary that a surgeon have good exposure of the organ system needing surgery in order to execute the surgical procedure. The conventional technique employed to provide surgical exposure includes the use of metal retractors, either self-retaining or hand held, or both, or by the sterile gloved hand of an assistant. To minimize trauma to body tissue, these instruments are used in conjunction with highly absorbent cotton laparotomy sponge pads or lengths of cotton gauze dressing or bandages.
Soft cotton laparotomy sponge pads were designed for the purpose of acting as sponges to be used to absorb serum and blood exuded during the operative procedure in order to keep the surgical field free of these and other body fluids. Lengths of cotton gauze bandage, on the other hand, were designed to be used as surgical dressings for wound cover. They are used to minimize bacterial contamination of a wound, to compress the wound so as to restrict leakage of body fluid and to absorb those fluids from the wound whose escape cannot be prevented.
The use of absorbent cotton laparotomy sponge pads and absorbent cotton gauze dressings for the purpose of securing surgical exposure represents a serious and disadvantageous application and is responsible for poor exposure of the site with frequent complications. Cotton fiber material has been considered the traditionally safe material for use in the peritoneal cavity. However, within recent years it has become apparent that cotton products give off an extraordinary amount of irritating cotton lint which can react intensely with abdominal viscera and peritoneal surfaces. The reactions to cotton fiber lint has been the cause of frequent occurrences of intraperitoneal inflammatory reaction noted post operatively (see Miller, American Journal of Surgery, February, 1980, page 295, Annals of Surgery, January, 1967, Sturdy, et al).
Using absorbent cotton products as devices to hold intestine or other viscera in special positions is also inappropriate. When the absorbent cotton products are placed into the peritoneal cavity, they absorb large quantities of body fluids. The fluids cause the cotton fibers to swell and soften and the overall firmness of the dry material is lost so that the fabric looses its ability to hold back peritoneal viscera which then fall onto the operative field. In order to be able to continue with the surgical procedure, repeated introduction of increasing numbers of cotton laparotomy pads becomes necessary to shore up the support function of the initially introduced pads that are no longer effective.
The introduction of multiple laparotomy sponge pads as well as other objects into the peritoneal cavity sets the stage for very serious and not uncommon complications should one or more objects placed in the peritoneal cavity slip away from visual accountability. Objects lost in this manner have been inadvertently left to remain in the peritoneal cavity after the abdominal surgery was completed. This has resulted in the most serious of surgical complications as well as death (see Annals of Surgery, January, 1967, Sturdy, et al).